Independent lab tests of antivirus products are essential to making an informed selection. We wouldn't want to just rely on each vendor to tout the merit of their own products; they'd all be five-star winners. But it's also important that the labs pay attention to the people who rely on these tests. AV-Comparatives surveys users every year to see what kinds of tests they consider most important, check on their OS and browser preferences, and gather other useful information about the public's understanding of computer security issues.

This survey specifically excluded respondents who work in the computer security industry, focusing instead on ordinary users around the world with enough interest in security that they visited the AV-Comparatives website. Researchers also used statistical filtering to detect invalid responses or attempts to deliberately skew the results.

Who Responded? Nearly 5,000 valid responses fed into the survey's results. About 44 percent were from Europe, 27 percent from Asia, and just 16 percent from North America. The rest of the responses came from South or Central America, Australia/Oceania, or Africa.

Over 60 percent of the respondents reported running Windows 7, either 32-bit or 64-bit. Another 17 percent had made the jump to Windows 8. Windows XP is still in the running, but fading, with 12 percent of the respondents. The remaining respondents reported running MacOS, Linux/Unix, or other Windows versions.

The survey also asked about preferred mobile operating systems and preferred browsers. Android took 51 percent of mobile users, Symbian 17 percent, and iOS/Apple 17 percent. The report notes that the dominance of Android means it will remain the biggest target for malware.

As for browsers, Internet Explorer would seem to be on the way out, with a bit over 14 percent reporting that they use IE. 39 percent go for Firefox and 35 percent for Chrome, though in Asia and South/Central America Chrome is more popular than Firefox.

Would you have known those? Almost 46 percent recognized EICAR, long-time source of an industry-supported check to make sure your antivirus is working. But 41 percent didn't recognize any of the acronyms. Even I hadn't run across DAVFI before.

What Do They Use?Just under 3 percent of respondents admitted that they don't have any security software installed. The rest reported using a plain antivirus or a full security suite, further broken down by paid or free products. Looking just at the totals, antivirus beats suite 53.1 percent to 44 percent, and paid beats free 55.2 percent to 41.9 percent. However, those using a suite were vastly more likely to have paid for it, while over two-thirds of those using antivirus alone chose a free solution.

As for what brands are most popular, that data showed a wide variation by geographical region. Microsoft (mostly Microsoft Security Essentials) came in first in North America but sixth in Europe and Asia, for example. Symantec, the second most popular in North America, came in fifth in Europe and seventh in Asia.

Panda, based in Spain, made the list in North America, South/Central America, and Asia, but wasn't in Europe's top 12. Conversely, G DATA has the #10 spot in Europe but doesn't appear in any of the other lists. The full report lists the top twelve in each of four areas.

What's ImportantWhat would you do if your antivirus failed to catch a virus, or wrongly reported a false positive? Would you contact the vendor? If so, this report puts you in the minority. Almost 70 percent of those polled said they wouldn't. Even so, almost 73 percent said that high protection against malware threats was more important than low impact on system performance.

The big payoff for AV-Comparatives is the poll question that asks which tests the respondents find most interesting. Each person got the opportunity to vote for four. At the top of the lists were the three tests I reference in every antivirus review: on-demand malware detection, real-world whole product protection, and retrospective malware detection (which tests effectiveness against zero-day threats).

Respondents also favored the malware removal test, which starts with malware infestations that are definitely recognized by all products being tested and evaluates how thoroughly each product removes the malware traces. That one's newer than the others; its popularity very likely ensures its continued presence in the AV-Comparatives test arsenal.

As always, the AV-Comparatives survey offers interesting insights into the public's knowledge of and attitudes about computer security, albeit a view skewed away from North America. You can view the report in all of its detail on the AV-Comparatives website.

About the Author

Neil Rubenking served as vice president and president of the San Francisco PC User Group for three years when the IBM PC was brand new. He was present at the formation of the Association of Shareware Professionals, and served on its board of directors. In 1986, PC Magazine brought Neil on board to handle the torrent of Turbo Pascal tips submitted b... See Full Bio

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